Corporate Enterprise and Christian Ethics

Abstract

Throughout the world, the moral basis of the free enterprise system faces both new and persistent challenges. It is convincing to a Christian and a man of business that these challenges cannot be met without a new, ethical vision of private enterprise, and a reconfiguration of the moral purpose of corporate life. By a new vision and a moral purpose, I mean a perception of the future that would develop the logic, stimuli, incentives, convictions and commitments which would lead to a more serving and more caring soci? ety, one that would liberate mans spirit. Rarely has there been a greater need for such a vision than at this moment in history. For, indeed, we live in turbulent and troubled times. Across every continent, nations and people are caught up in conflict, confrontation, terror and violence of unprecedented dimension. Much of this turbulence is born out of the spiritial vacuum of our days. In the ultimate analysis, it represents a quest for a new social and economic order that would give purpose and meaning to modern men. In this complex, anonymous and interdepen? dent world, people have become disenchanted with communism while, at the same time, questioning the moral validity of classic capitalism. Where will a new social and economic vision come from? As Elmer Johnson correctly states, moral philosophers since the 18th Century have thought that man can manage his passions and sentiments out of enlightened Classical philosophers maintain that, through the cognitive process, man can acquire a passion for the com? mon good. Utilitarian morality, we are told, will produce the new vision needed to preserve our society. The experience of history indicates that man will not act nobly, with compassion and fidelity, simply out of enlightened self-interest. In effect, what utilitarian philosophers have tried to do is find a substitute for virtue. In contrast, I wish to suggest that the new vision needed by modern men and women is to be found not in self-interest but in Judeo Christian virtues. Moreover, I am convinced that the Judeo-Christian system has the power to transform modern man and to stimulate him to a life of service, stewardship and compassion, values that I describe below.